AIBU to expect to go into Pets at Home without being scared by a rat?

[Bananasandchocolatecustard]

I had a training session with a behaviourist for my dogs fear aggression. I went int PaH to buy a long lead. I found one and took it to the counter to pay. There was an assistant at the till, I asked her a question then saw a rat's head poking out of her fleece!!!
The next thing I knew, I was behind a shelving unit hiding from the rat.
I am so scared of rats since a rat family took up residence in my garden a few years ago. I still don't leave my back door open in case a wandering rat fancies a visit.
I know there are are lots of people who like rats, but I don't expect to be confronted by one at a till.
Needless to say I didn't stay in the shop.

Although persoanlly I would have loved seeing the rat in the fleece (I love rats), if it had been a spider I would have not stopped running until I was out of sight of the shop, possibly of the whole town....so I can sympathise!

Yeah I appreciate that they are pets - but if they are in a cage you can avoid them! I have a massive phobia of rats & I would probably have started screaming if I'd seen it. I would have thought that rats, snakes, spiders etc are pretty common phobias & that the shop would be aware of that.

Rats are such LOVELY creatures!
I don't understand why you don't like them?

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2571567/Tortoise-given-WHEELS-legs-gnawed-rats-hibernating-underground-owners-garden.html

I would be hiding with you
Uggggh

The staff at my closest PAH quite often have an animal at the till with them, last time I went I was served by a woman wearing a tiny lizard.

They always have animals out in the three fairly local ones we visit. I think it's god they handle them so much. Im on the fence though as I know some people find rats terrifying. If it was a rabbit it'd be different.

Good

This is not an uncommon sight at the pah by me. I love to see the workers interacting with the animals!
Would it have been different if it had been a cute bunny?
I don't like tarantulas either,i wouldn't think it was unusual though.

Yanbu to be scared of rats but it is a pet shop. I personally would've asked for a stroke. Pet rats are lovely with fab characters.

Yanbu at all

I would also have been upset

OP, did you mean to post this in the "I'm Not Being Unreasonable" topic?

You are being ridiculous and hypocritical. For a start you were in a pet shop and secondly you had a pet with you, which I imagine you regularly take out in public. Many people are terrified of dogs but it doesn't stop you does it?

I'm not crazy about spiders (understatement) but in a petshop I'd expect to suck it up if a tarantula was on the loose.

rats are Luffly , btw.

I would have been surprised but not as surprised as the assistant would've been if my very enthusiastic terrier had seen the rat.

The rat wasn't going to touch you, despite not being in a cage, so you have nothing to complain about, since you went in a pet shop.

I'm with the OP but then Lunar makes a damn good point - while I'm hysterical around rats (I blame James Herbert) I'm only slightly timid around dogs (I blame the dog that bit DC4), but would never actively seek out their company. This is why I avoid pet shops. If it's not a cat, I don't really want to see it.

Bananas - never go to The London Dungeons. There are people standing alongside the queue with rats.

YANBU. I'm terrified of rats as well. Filthy dirty disgusting things. Imagine if it had jumped out and run all over the floor? Gross.

I would have absolutely shat myself. I am absolutely terrified of them. So are a lot of people - probably race memory from when we were overrun with them and they carried disease/ate babies/bit everybody.*

So, OP, YANBU.

*Disclaimer: I have no fucking idea what I am talking about.

Dogs are way filthier than rats snd are permitted to run all over the floor at PAH.

Some dogs might have peed down the sides of the glass case with the rabbits in

OP was this in PAH in Leigh?

I went in there the other month and the girl on the till had a rat crawling round her neck!!

errr... no thanks, I hate rats.

stevienicks - I think you may be talking about the Bubonic Plague :o. Although haven't they since decided we've been blaming rats unfairly for that? Not that I care one jot if rats have been falsely accused of genocide.

Lunar - I probably didn't make myself clear, my dog was in my car with my daughter. I am starting a training programme with him because of the fear aggression, that's why I was buying the long line. He is reacting to everything at the moment, so I am keeping him out of the way of people and dogs.

Rats are actually very clean. Hamsters are far messier!

It's really not difficult. If you have a phobia of any animal kept as a pet in the UK then you need to keep out of Pets At Home, or take steps to get your phobia cured.

I assume you take your dog out though? In public? Where there are people who are terrified of dogs?

I'm not saying you shouldn't. I'm just saying that you're probably scaring a lot of people with your dog, and she scared you with her rat.

Get over it